Steve’s Educational Reflection
Junior Additional Qualification Course
Queen's University
Education, a Path Towards Knowledge!
Welcome! Portfolios are what I consider invaluable. In this case, it provides important insight into a teachers' individual talents and beliefs about education. This portfolio represents a personal reflection of my collection of work! This portfolio is organized around the 5 Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession: Commitment to Students and
Student Learning In addition, check out the Related Links section of the site to access a tremendous number a valuable sites that might be of interest in your teaching practice!
Project List |
Hi there everyone! Steve Bauernschmitt
General Panét High School
Phone: 613-687-2095
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A. Commitment to Students and Student Learning
Module A1 - Setting Up My Classroom
Classroom setup can dramatically affect students' attitudes toward and habits of learning. Students need an environment that is organized, stimulating, and comfortable in order to learn effectively. Creating such an environment entails arranging a practical physical layout, supplying diverse materials and supplies, and encouraging students to have a sense of belonging and ownership.
Module A2 – Classroom Atmosphere
It takes careful planning to organize a dynamic, inclusive classroom that provides junior students with the structure they need for optimal learning. The atmosphere must be safe, respectful, stimulating, and inviting, so that all students feel comfortable and excited about learning. All stakeholders – teachers, the community, parents, administration, staff, and students – need to be involved in building the classroom environment, to provide a place for learning that recognizes the diversity of life experiences that learners bring to the classroom.
Module A3 - Social Skill Mini Lesson - Responsibility: Being Prepared For Class
Perhaps the greatest for delay and unnecessary distraction in classrooms is the unprepared student! Students that do not have the proper supplies and materials such as a binder with paper, writing tools, and books create an atmosphere that is not conducive to a good learning environment. The disorganization of students is a behaviour that needs to be addressed so that students can become more responsible for their behavior as it applies to their education and teachers have more effective instructional time..
Module A4 – Inclusion
Inclusion is a big part of our school system in terms of the exceptional and IPRC students that move through our schools. Many of my classes at all levels are filled with students identified with some type of learning disability. This represents the classrooms of today and teaches need to realize that as educators we need to accommodate these students through our preparation on a daily basis.
Module A5 - Accommodation/Modification
Students at the junior level require monitoring in terms of accommodation and modification such that a strong plan is in place for their movement towards graduation to high school. Student learning is vital for educational growth and instruction strategies that allow students more choice in their ability to demonstrate understanding of key expectations is vital for student success.
B. Professional Knowledge
Module B1 – Learning Styles/Multiple Intelligence
Information about learning styles and Multiple Intelligence (MI) is helpful for all teachers interested in becoming better educators. Learning styles are different approaches or ways of learning. They involve designing methods of instruction for individuals that are presumed to allow the students to learn best.
Module B2 - Learning Theorists
There are a few theorists that seem to dominate my beliefs about teaching and learning. The Constructivist learning theory (Bruner) influences my teaching style in my senior science classroom while the Social learning theory (Bandura) has somewhat of a greater role in my junior classroom. The Junior classroom is influenced greatly by each of these theories and teachers need to be aware of their influences in terms of teaching practice.
Module B3 - Junior Age Development
Both teachers and coaches in our community (… and parents too!) play an important role in instilling confidence and a sense of health in our junior aged children so they can move forward with the ability that they can achieve success without being concerned about failure in some aspect of their lives.
Module B4 - Learner-Centered Psychological Principles
The following 14 psychological principles pertain to all learners and the learning process. They are best understood as an organized set of principles; no principle should be viewed in isolation. This document is adapted from the Principles developed by the American Psychological Association. These principles aid teacher at the Junior level in that they make teachers reflect on good teacher practice.
Module B5 - Timetable – Junior French Immersion
The timetable for a Junior class can be difficult to create in that it requires scheduling that must accommodate Ministry mandated time for language and mathematical instructional blocks. As a result, this can put stress on other parts of the curriculum in terms of scheduling appropriate time to manage curricular expectations.
Module B6 - Numeracy: An Introduction
Student learning is boundless in mathematically rich environments. Junior minds find satisfaction in attainable challenges, the novelty of experience, and the encouragement of their peers, parents, and teachers. In developing a mathematics program, it is important to concentrate on the big ideas and on the important knowledge and skills that relate to those big ideas.
Module B7 – Big Idea Chart
It is important to concentrate on the big ideas and on the important knowledge and skills that relate to those big ideas. Programs that are organized around big ideas and focus on problem solving provide cohesive learning opportunities that allow students to explore mathematical concepts in depth. The following piece of work outlines potential big ideas for the junior level grades 4-6.
Module B8 - Topic Outline: Social Studies Curriculum, Grades 4-6 (Revised 2004)
When you view the Topics Outline, you will see that there is a lot of material to address in any of the grades at the junior level. One way to help cope with the number of expectations is to look for ways to combine topics and subjects. Integration could mean content connections within one document and between documents. This work outlines the integration of Social Studies, History, Geography.
Module B9 – Constructive Feedback
One very important feature of formative assessment is the type of feedback the student receives as they are learning. Often phrases of "good job" and "keep going" are heard in classrooms. These types of phrases, while encouraging, provide no information for students to understand what they have done well or what they need to improve in order to be successful. I have listed several of these types of "one liners" and an example of more constructive feedback.
Module B10 – Summative Assessment
The importance of continuing to evaluate the importance of assessment for learning is extremely critical to student success in our goal to produce student graduates capable of handling the expectations of today’s society. In classrooms where assessment for learning is practiced, students know at the outset of a unit of study what they are expected to learn. In the junior classroom, this is an important practice for junior students to be successful.
C. Teaching Practices
Module C1 – Multiple Intelligence Lesson Plan
Information about learning styles and Multiple Intelligence (MI) is helpful for all teachers interested in becoming better educators. Learning styles are different approaches or ways of learning. They involve designing methods of instruction for individuals that are presumed to allow the students to learn best. The lesson plan illustrated cover Grade 6 Electricity – Building Circuits using a software program called Gizmo from Explore Learning - Interactive Math and Science Simulations.
Module C2 - Unit Outline: Short-Term Planning Template for Grade 5
The cluster of expectations is based on the link between Science, Language, and Mathematics. Understanding the link between Science and Language is a key to communication in a scientific matter. Reading, writing, or presenting scientific data is an integral part of Science and the communication with society. In addition, the connection of Science to mathematics is also important to understand due to the number of applications of mathematical skills required to communicate scientific data appropriately in society.
Module C3 - Shared Reading – 5-Day Lesson Plan
The daily plan of instruction in reading, writing, oral communication and media awareness must include both direct and scaffolded instruction. Direct teaching is explicit, active instruction that has clear explanations, demonstrations, modeling and opportunities for interactive student-teacher practice, application and review. Scaffolded instruction includes a strong teacher model that gradually guides students towards independence. This support is determined by the competencies and understandings of the children. Scaffolding implies that what the students can do with help, they can ultimately do alone. The work presented here illustrates a shared reading lesson plan over a five day period.
Module C4 – Technology
Thinking about how technology will change the dynamics of your junior classroom routines is essential in introducing technology in your classroom. I have created a list of technologies that you would want to consider using in your classroom. Beside each item, I have indicated how it was used and have included a reflective exercise, rating my comfort level with the technology using poor, good or excellent. See how you fair!
Module C5 – Diagnostic Testing
There are several options that could be taken to assess a students' prior knowledge (skills, vocabulary, general knowledge of topic) of a subject. I addition, uncovering a student's interest, discovering behaviour information (to be used for grouping), understand learning styles of students (Multiple Intelligences, learner types), and determining what accommodations (for all students) or modifications (for IEP students) might be required is important before moving forward with a unit of study.
Module C6 – Culminating Activity: Understanding Matter and Energy: Garbage Grunge
When we plan with the end in mind, we begin with the final task or the culminating task of the unit. Students must know what they are working toward. With this in mind, I have created a culminating task that covers Grade 5 Science Understanding Matter and Energy.
Module C7 – Assessment/Evaluation Tracking Sheet
The Achievement Charts detail the four broad
categories of knowledge and skills within which the curriculum expectations are
assessed and evaluated. I have used a spreadsheet tracking sheet to assess
and evaluate student progress over the past few years. Developing the tracking
sheet to record information on formative and summative assessments has been a
work in progress and with the many different versions in our educational system
it is not difficult to find new ideas for tracking student progress.
D. Leadership and Community
Module D1 – Parents as Partners
I have used, as a teacher and coach, parents in many aspects of my teaching. I have included them as assistants in the classroom, on field trips, sporting trips, and as special guests in the classroom. The knowledge and experience parents can bring to the classroom can enhance your teaching practice and engage students higher order learning.
Module D2 - Planning Excursions
Integration is an important part of the junior classroom. Out-of-class excursions often provide the most vivid memories for students from their school days. Seeing first hand the information provided in books and videos or on the Internet often has a big impact on the minds of students. Planning an out-of-class excursion needs careful thought. Often school boards have specific policies around out-of-class trips that dictate the types of permission slips, how many adults are required for the number of students and details about the planning of the day. The excursion presented is a trip to Bonnechere Caves located 90 minutes from Algonquin Park and 80 minutes from Ottawa, in the town of Eganville Ontario.
Module D3 – Website Evaluations
The evaluation of resources designed to help teachers prepare lessons and students supplement understanding is an important part of a teachers planning in terms of helping teachers implement the curriculum. This piece of work evaluates five website that are suitable for use at the junior level.
E. Ongoing Professional Learning.
Module E1 – EQAO Testing
EQAO provides parents, teachers and the public with accurate and reliable information about student achievement. EQAO also makes recommendations for improvement that educators, parents, policy-makers and others in the education community can use to improve learning and teaching. This piece of work provides you with a look at how EQAO benefits students, parents, teachers, and the school districts.
Module E2 – Exemplars
There are several opportunities and reasons why teachers should use exemplar with their students in a junior classroom. I have listed several reasons and opportunities where this can take place in the classroom to better prepare students with respect to the expectations of a piece of work.
Module E3 – Principles of Assessment
The primary purpose of assessment and evaluation is to improve student learning in and outside the classroom. Formative and summative information gathered through assessment of the students throughout the school day helps teachers to determine the students’ strengths and weaknesses in their ability to understand and utilize the curriculum expectations in a particular subject.
Module E4 - Blooms Revised Taxonomy Questions
Bloom's Revised Taxonomy is one of the best ways to differentiate the curriculum to meet the needs of your students. Because of its six levels of thinking, it can provide a starting point for planning units that incorporate low to high-level thinking activities. Therefore, when we use Bloom's Revised Taxonomy as a planning framework we can plan for student thinking at all levels. This piece of work illustrates the use of Bloom's work as it applies to the junior curriculum: Grade 4 –Understanding Earth and Space Systems – Rocks and Minerals.
Related Links
In the Junior Qualification course several websites were viewed to access information for many of the assignments found in this website. With that in mind, I have listed several sites that teachers may have some interest in exploring in an attempt to solidify their teaching practices at the junior level.
Guide To Effective Literacy Instruction
http--www.ascd.org-ASCD-pdf-books-mctighe2004_intro.pdf
The 2Learn.ca Education Society presents Net Know How .ca
Electronic Portfolios Students, Teachers, and Life Long Learners
policy/achievement/charts1to12.pdf
http://www.cdl.org/resource-library/articles/social_skills.php
5 Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession - Google Search
Backward into the Future - Professionally Speaking - June 2004
CSC Differentiated Instruction (Webcast)
Survey Monkey.com - Creating web surveys.
Science News for Kids Home Page
ExploreLearning - Interactive Math and Science Simulations.
Official Blog for Steve Spangler
Educational Websites For Kids - The KidsKnowIt Network
Astronomy For Kids - KidsAstronomy.com
Astronomy for Kids Planets Saturn
starchild A Learning Center for Young Astronomers
Make a Splash with Color -- Exhibit Overview
Elementary - Grade 5 Science Electricity and Magnetism